Ground Zero experience paints new perspective

Another perspective

    Standing at Ground Zero in New York City on Sunday, Sept. 10, made this year’s 9/11 commemorative tributes even more vivid in my heart and mind. It’s been 16 years since that dreadful day Sept. 11, 2001, when personal memories remain forever imbedded.
     Following tradition, a fire truck on display in front of the local fire station, draped with bunker gear, raised tribute to the fallen firemen. Having just seen the actual crushed fire trucks, burnt bunker gear and footage of the devastating action from that day was even more significant.
     While frightened survivors were frantically making every attempt to get out of the crumbling and burning World Trade Center towers, they met firemen going up the stairs, risking their own lives in the line of duty.
     The local display reinforces that it’s not only the heroism of firemen serving the 9/11 attack. Firemen, law enforcement, and other professionals and volunteers locally as well as across the country continually put their own lives at risk for others.
     Emotions stirred as we stood at the reflecting pools where the twin towers once stood, each nearly an acre in size. Waterfalls flow in depth more peacefully than when the twin towers plummeted into the ground in the same spot, leaving no remains of victims.
     Nearly 3,000 names of everyone who died are inscribed into bronze panels edging the memorial pools. Lights from the pool illuminate through each name at night. Those killed at the Pentagon and where the plane went down in Pennsylvania that day are also included as well as the six killed in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
     The reflecting pools and an amazing museum in an eight-acre area provide important history of a dreadful day that should never be forgotten. Enormous photos and life-like footage paint a picture of the destruction — people running through a thick fog of soot, firefighters carrying children and adults who are weak but alive, people with extreme fear, confusion and emotion, wondering if co-workers, friends and family are still alive.
     Moving huge remnants from the site to create a visual perspective was a huge task. One specific cement staircase spoke to me.
     A survivor explained how she was evacuating the north tower when the south tower collapsed. She got out of the building and found just one stairway where she could escape the falling debris. That 58-ton stairway was just one of the visuals in the museum, named The Survivors’ Stairs.

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